ISLAMABAD - The interim government has decided to maintain the prices of petroleum products at the existing level during the month of August 2018.
“Despite price increase recommended by OGRA due to the price hike in international market, the government has decided to keep the rates of petroleum products unchanged,” said a statement issued by Finance Division here on Tuesday night.
According the statement, tax/duty adjustments have been made accordingly.
To keep the prices of petroleum products unchanged the government has reduced GST on HSD from 24 per cent to 23 percent, on Motor Spirit from 12 per cent to 9.5 percent, Kerosene from 12 percent to 6 percent, and on Light Diesel Oil from 9 percent to 1 percent.
The decision has been taken to provide maximum relief to the common man.
The Finance Division was supposed to make a decision on the OGRA’s summary by midnight July 31, however, the announcement was made after midnight.
A minister of the caretaker setup was earlier quoted as saying that they had left the price unchanged and passed the responsibility of price adjustment to next elected government.
In the summary moved to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division), the OGRA had recommended an upward revision in the prices of all petroleum products. An increase of Rs 4 was also recommended in the prices of kerosene oil.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on Monday recommended an increase of about Rs2.50 per litre in the prices of petrol, Rs 2.45 per litre in high speed diesel (HSD) and around Rs 5 per litre in kerosene oil and Rs 6 per litre in LDO for August 2018.
For the month of July, the caretaker government on June 30 had increased the price of petrol by Rs7.54 per litre taking it to Rs99.50 per litre, diesel by Rs14 per litre taking it to Rs119.3 per litre and kerosene oil by Rs3.36 to Rs87.7 per litre.
However, on July 7, the prices were brought down after the Supreme Court took notice of heavy taxes on petroleum products. The notification issued by the Ministry of Finance on July 7 had said that the price of petrol was reduced by Rs4.26 to Rs95.24 per litre, high-speed diesel by Rs6.37 to Rs112.94, kerosene oil by Rs3.74 to Rs83.96 and light diesel oil by Rs5.54 to Rs75.37.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N government at the end of its five-year tenure on May 31 had left the monthly decision of setting new prices of petroleum to the caretaker government and decided that the existing prices may continue till mid-night of June 7, 2018. The caretaker government on June 11 had increased prices of petrol by Rs4.260 per litre, HSD Rs6.55/litre and Kerosene by Rs4.46 litre and LDO price by Rs6.14/litre.
Fawad Yousafzai